Leaders, Do You Look For Ways To Say “Yes”?
In the decade and a half I worked in Leadership I found that one of the ways you could split managers is:
Those that say “no” because they can
Those that look for ways to say “yes”
I was at an MI (Management Information) review meeting on Friday at a company I work with. One of the points raised was about the colour of some of the text on a performance dashboard.
The users found the colour amber off-putting as it signaled mediocrity to them and asked for it to be changed.
The developer readily agreed to this easy fix, but one of the department managers started going on a rant saying how the users should change their behaviour as he had agreed for the colour to be amber.
I was shocked by this as most companies want to move to a place where they say “yes”
Do you find that Leaders and Managers sometimes say “no” because:
❌It’s always been done that way
❌It’s easier to maintain the status quo
❌They’re afraid to question
❌They have fragile egos?
High performing employees need a voice, they need autonomy and they need leaders with open minds.
Just say “yes”!